Monday, September 26, 2011

It was a short weekend for me... Rich left early Saturday morning to go out to the house to watch the concrete guy stake out the area for the shop building. I would show you a photo of the orange stakes, but there aren't any. Rich basically told him..."fit the shop here between these trees". The concrete guy said "ok" and left... That's how you do business in the country... Then Rich got busy and finished the front porch...

we now have a step!!

front view

Many will ask why we decided to add the step to the side of the porch. We have a large planting of something in the yard that we would like to keep.. If we put the walk to the left of the planting we would be walking right up next to the house.. If we put the walk to the right of the planting the flow works much smoother...that meant that we couldn't add the step to the front of the porch, but went to the side. A concrete walk will run from the step to the driveway. We will add balusters and banisters after the movers are gone to make it easier on them...

He also got a couple of small jobs finished. Put the doors on the closets in the back hallway, adjusted the front door and adjusted the master bedroom door. He also took off to town to get all the "parts" we would need for Sunday's job.

What a mess! We had closet rods, shelving units, shelf supports, shelf hangers and too many parts to keep track of...that doesn't count the drill, drill bits, sawzall and hammer. That little chest of drawers was found at an estate sale right before we bought this house and we have kept all of our clothes in there for the past year. Four drawers of work clothes.. It will soon have a place in the sewing room.

top shelf

two closet rods

two shoe racks

another shelf and my closet is done!

Rich already had two rods in his closet so we added two shoe racks and three shelves..

Yes, we have separate closets for the first time in our married life. He took the closet that was already in the bedroom and I got the new one. The closets aren't huge by any standard. Neither one of us have a huge amount of clothes. He probably has the most as he has work clothes and weekend clothes. I am not a big fan of clothes shopping or any shopping (except fabric!) for that matter... so our closets will be sufficient for us.. And we are very happy that all this wire and all four closet rods were recycled.. we saved them and took them to the car wash a couple of months ago...so we just had to buy a few parts to put it all together..

And that took all day...all. day. But we did one more thing before we left..

Do You See It?

See It Now?

A NEW DOORBELL!!

This house never had one..I always wondered how they knew someone was at the door. You can't hear cars come down the driveway. The only windows that face the driveway are either in the bedrooms or the back hallway.. I found this wireless set at Lowe's for less than $20. The doorbell has a little battery in it and comes with a self stick pad or screws to attach it to your house..and then you plug the other part into a wall outlet. Easy Peasy.. It took less than five minutes and we will know when you come to visit...

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

One year ago today we signed the papers and this house became ours. We knew it would be a lot of work...we had no idea.. We had great hopes of being done with everything in nine months. Like most renovations we ran a bit over time...and budget. But we are so proud and happy with the results so far.

Saturday started bright and early with me calling on a grandchild and asking for help. At some point last week, I twisted my right knee and even with Aleve and ice and rest it was still bothering me. Brad (our son-in-law) was coming over to help fell two trees and I asked if Owen would like to come help Grandma and maybe make some money...

That boy can work. Our first job was the basement. We moved wood, cabinet doors, screens, tools, doors and then swept and he hauled all the trash up and around the house to the trash pile. Every so often I would look around and he would be gone... the first couple of times I figured he was going to the bathroom or getting a drink...after the third time I asked him where he had been. "I was checking the time.." he said. "Why?" "So I know how much I have made so far".. You see, I was paying him by the hour! lol

After he was done helping me, he asked Grandpa if he had any "paying jobs".. Why yes...he did..

He made $27 ....

And we decided it was finally necessary to replace the front porch...

We used all of these tools to do this...

There will be a railing added after we move. We didn't think that the movers would be happy to haul their butts up a 3 foot hike into the house. or work their way around a railing.. And there will be a skirting added around the bottom...

This is where the railings will go...

And as it turns out our daughters were correct...we are moving "to the middle of nowhere" as evidenced by the fact that I spent all day today on the phone attempting to find out who our telephone provider is. We "thought" it was one but when I called they said ATT was our provider, but ATT said no and round and round we went until finally ATT actually decided they were our telephone provider but no...we can't get ATT internet...so back to square one..

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

And this is how we started the weekend... The first post for the front porch... This is what the front porch looked like before..

Well, it wasn't even a real porch...Just a walkway...and a badly constructed one at that...

Rich used a gas powered post hole digger and I used the shovel and we dug out seven holes...then he poured the concrete and I held the post til it was partially set and then this was all done by Saturday evening and we cleaned up and went into town to see "Contagion" at the show... very riveting movie...you will never touch your face again...

Sunday morning we got up and got to work putting in the floor joists. At the beginning I held the post at one end while Rich nailed the joist hanger. At some point I said "too bad you don't have another hammer, I could help". He looked up and said "there's a hammer right inside the door, you start on one side and hit this little piece to set it into place and then put three nails on one side, then go to the other side and put one nail into the toenail and then just finish all the rest of the nails".. "Um, yea..I can do that" and I did.. I nailed at one end and he nailed the other and it went really fast..... ..and Rich looked up and said "Do you want to take a photo to show how far we got by noon?" I took the photo and then looked at my phone.. Actually it was around 2pm....

And this is the way we left it on Sunday afternoon.. Next weekend we will put the top boards on and then it will get RESTORE put on next spring... The wood needs to weather before using the RESTORE product.

And in between doing the porch I used a little spray paint to put a final coat on this...

I really love to spray paint. See the handle? It was brown plastic and I searched all over for a replacement but it's an odd size so I bought some of this...

and sprayed the handle...and then I got crazy and sprayed something else...but it wasn't dry so I will show you next week.. Who knew spray paint could be so much fun!

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

For those here in the states this past weekend was the unofficial end of summer. With three days off of work, Rich got a lot done. Me? Not so much. Without realizing it, I agreed to babysit the smallest of my grandchildren on this holiday weekend. She came to stay Thursday night and didn't go home until Sunday night, so every day Rich would drive out to the house, work and then come back... Abbie and I did some crafting, went to see GG (my mom) and did some baking..

Rich got loads accomplished...

He got all the baseboard and quarter round installed in the back hallway. We are finally done with all the floors.

He literally tore the sidewalks out from the front of the house.. This is the view from the front door.

And the view towards the front door... There were big concrete slabs found under the wooden steps. One of them will become the footing for the new step off the new front porch.

Those are the guest room windows.. Well I guess one of them is..We just recently found out that our son will be moving with us to attend school. So he will get his pick of rooms and then the other will be a guest room. Need to decide whether to put the trundle bed or the queen bed in the guest room.

Monday Rich and I got the ledger boards installed. The front porch will be 6 feet wide from the front door along the right wall and then will include the little niche on the left there. One step down and railings will finish it off.

And I used some more of this...

To finish the Magnet Board in my sewing room. I am thinking of putting a white trim piece along the top edge.. just not sure..any thoughts. Yea, Nay...trim piece...no trim piece? I will say that the blue tape did a great job...no bleeding so that line is nice and sharp..

And I did more spray painting on this little cart for laundry area. I love the orange..

And I guess that's about all.. The weather on Monday was fabulous..we ate lunch of grilled pork steaks on the sun porch... I am hoping to find a nice comfortable chair and ottoman because I think it will be the perfect place to sit and stitch or read a book...

And the best news? We have our moving date!! More on that later as we finalize our plans..